The Scout: You two should really meet

Coming soon: Scout Sessions

It’s an email, and it’s so much more. Think of it as a community of people working to build our region, seeking out good news, supporting their neighbors in the pursuit of living happily and fully. It’s a community that talks the talk through sharing uplifting stories and walks the walk through putting on and showing up for stellar events. It’s a community with the voice of The Scout at its helm, pointing people to the positive — and the newest restaurant. That’s what The Scout is.

It’s local. It’s Midwestern. It’s our voices rising up to tell the story of the land between the coasts.

Always working with charm and hustle, The Scout has many moving parts. Here are the current projects The Scout is up to and how they’re helping shape our region into all we want it to be:

The Daily Email

You know it — so often the stories that are considered newsworthy are the ones that focus on the bad things happening in the world, with little focus on the good. But the story of civilization, as Will Durant and The Scout’s mission statement tell us, is “not about what happens in the stream filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shouting and doing things historians usually record.” It’s about what happens on the banks, where, unnoticed, people “build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry and even whittle statues.”

The Scout started as a daily email to notice the life that is taking place on the banks, to tell the stories of people doing good things. Specifically, The Scout is interested in telling the story of the Midwest, using our voices to tell our own stories rather than letting those who don’t live here write our narrative. It’s a love letter to the Midwest, from the Midwest.

What you can expect from The Scout daily email: three short stories of good news each day, told in the voice of your coolest, wittiest friend who is always the first to know about the newest restaurant opening, where to find the best local live music and how the people you live next to are making a difference in the world. You can also expect the occasional inspiring video about art bringing people together around the world and the occasional poll asking you what your hometown would smell like if it were a candle.

The Scout email’s job is to help you be the first to know about all good things in our region, in just five minutes a day. Sign up at thescout.io.

The Podcast

Some of you would rather listen than read. Some of you think five minutes with The Scout in the morning isn’t enough and miss it throughout the rest of your day. And some of you really just want someone in your life who shares the same passion for tacos, cycling through the Mojave Desert and the ‘90s — and all the other great ideas you read in The Scout throughout the week.

The Scout gets it. That’s why ya boys — Christopher Bonner, Jordan Copeland and Scout creator Jeff Rawson — bring you The Scout Podcast each week. In it, they riff on the daily email’s biggest stories, expanding on them with their insightful charm and hustle. And they’re planning some fun new things for the 2021 season, including more conversations with local guests who have interesting things to say. It’s all about further connecting The Scout community and showing pride in where we’re from. Tune in at thescout.io/podcast, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify.

The Scout Pass

It’s not a coupon book. It’s a guide to explore our hometown in the most delicious way possible.

The Scout shows you around some of the best culinary spots in Southeast Missouri. Through giveaways like free sushi rolls from Bistro Saffron to free brunch from mary jane bourbon + smokehouse to free margaritas from El Sol and many, many more mouthwatering offers, The Scout Pass is designed to drive revenue to local businesses, helping potential patrons discover new places they want to come back to while receiving a “thank you” from the businesses they already frequent regularly.

Here’s how The Scout Pass works: for $25, you get 32 offers worth more than $200. Bring your pass booklet to the participating experience for them to sign their page. They’ll bring you their aforementioned culinary delight. They sign, you dine. Everybody wins.

So basically, what the booklet says on the back cover isn’t a lie: “This book is magic.” Get yours at thescoutpass.com.

The Next Project

The problem is many of our brightest and most talented young people leave the region to pursue jobs and lives somewhere else when we need them right here to grow our cities and towns. The Next Project is working on part of the solution: recognizing our communities’ next leaders — those doing good who are younger than 18 years old — and then connecting them to adult mentors in our business community whom the students can lean on throughout elementary, middle, junior high and high school.

Community members nominate students they know who are making a positive difference in the world through awesome endeavors like founding a project or contributing to research or staying focused on making positive choices amidst challenging circumstances. Then, The Scout chooses 10 students to recognize. This year, The Scout screened the films made about each of the students at the Rock ‘N’ Roll Drive-In and is featuring their stories in the daily email to encourage these students — and us adults, too — to keep doing good.

The goal is to show the world how incredible young people are while at the same time letting the young people know this region sees them and cares about them. It’s talent retention through showing them we want them here and that there’s a place for them.

The Shipyard

One of the Scout’s favorite things is live music. And as the quintessential Scout event, the Shipyard Music Festival brings nationally-touring bands right here to Cape Girardeau for a two-day festival complete with food, drink and unique experiences created by sponsors. It’s here where you can make a postcard to mail from the festival, eat coffee ice cream floats and participate in community art installations while sampling the best local food and drink and listening to original music with a couple thousand of your new best friends. Its goal is to build community through the belief that proximity helps mend division — it’s difficult to disagree completely with someone while you’re standing next to them enjoying the same music.

While building community, Shipyard also aims to drive revenue to businesses in downtown Cape by making Cape Girardeau a destination for travelers coming to the festival. Doing its part to make this the place we all want it to be through bringing big-city experiences to our own backyard, Shipyard also works to attract and retain talent in our area, helping to make this an exciting place to live.

See you in September 2021.

That’s what The Scout’s all about. Building our community through sharing good news. Supporting local businesses by giving them avenues to reach new patrons. Retaining talent in our region by connecting young people with mentors. Attracting people and revenue to Cape Girardeau through putting on killer events folks are proud to be a part of. And that’s just for now. Full of charm, full of hustle, you never know what The Scout’s scouting out next.

You can bet it will be good for the Midwest.